Why maths is fun

This is where game-based learning comes in. Here are three games that could help you get better at maths and even have you saying maths is fun in no time:. Maths is fun when made into games.

An immersive game like DimensionM takes you on a journey to challenge and increase curiosity levels amongst learners. The avatar, which in this game is a college student stranded on an island, progresses through a series of missions.

To complete them, you have to answer math questions. The difficulty increases at each level. The secret ingredient to making this game-based learning platform engaging and captivating is suspense. An amalgamation of challenges and puzzles creates what we know as Prodigy. This platform uses characters that travel on quests either individually or with friends to earn in-game rewards. Players solve math challenges in quests and receive rewards.

Row 1, column 5 — Bingo! Math Bingo is an interesting twist to the original game. E ach player has an allocated amount of bingo cards that have answers to mathematical equations. When the leader calls out for a number, an equation would be presented for the learners to solve.

It's weird to go from being essentially a maths denier a "matheist"? Fast forward to the present day, I'm currently reading Simon Singh 's latest book The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets , an entertaining and sometimes disconcerting book that details how the writers of The Simpsons have actually included countless high-brow maths references in the show, on account of how many of the main writing staff have advanced maths degrees.

Think about that for a second. The most popular TV show in history, an animated comedy, had a writing staff packed with maths experts. If you can work out the odds of that happening by chance, they'd probably give you a job.

But whatever you make of this, the fact that mathematicians are behind the most successful comedy in history does somewhat annihilate the stereotypical view that maths, and by extension mathematicians, are no fun, or "humourless". Where does this negative view of maths come from?

I recall hearing the news about the largest prime ever discovered while driving, meaning it was delivered by a commercial radio DJ who relayed the story in sarcastic, mocking tones before questioning why mathematicians can't do anything useful for society.

As I said, this from a commercial radio DJ; the level of hypocrisy I experienced almost caused me to veer off the road. But this sort of view persists. I've heard people say "why bother to learn maths? We've got calculators these days", which is akin to saying "why bother learning to swim now that boats exist?

Being unable to read or write is, at the very least, socially embarrassing, but being unable to do maths is often a "badge of honour". This likely stems from childhood and school. Language and verbal communication seem to be innate, more "natural".

However, studies suggest that this is also true for maths ability. Some argue that language and maths skills evolved along similar lines. There is also debate as to whether maths is something constructed by the human mind or an inherent property of the universe.

Like language , the brain seems to have regions dedicated to mathematical ability. So why the negative stereotype for maths? Is it because language is something we use constantly that can be applied in creative ways, whereas maths is more "rigid" and obeys strict rules? Is it that language can be applied to tangible, relatable things, whereas maths is more "abstract" and therefore harder to grasp?

Both these views are unfair, of course. Language has many rules and restrictions, as anyone who's ever posted a misspelled word on the internet will know, having had it immediately pointed out by the angry commenters. Try it yourself, their bound to turn up en masse. And it's ridiculous to think that maths can't be applied to the real world. For starters, we live in a gravity well , so everything falls at mathematically determined rates.

Everything around us behaves in mathematically determined ways, so if anything maths is even more applicable to the real world than language. Some find it boring, rigid. Perhaps this is true for the basic stuff that has to be taught, but when you get into irrational numbers , imaginary numbers , infinitesimals and other surreal but well known maths concepts, it can start to look quite bonkers. How do we combat this anti-maths stereotype in an increasingly complicated world where it can prove a real handicap?